Here’s a short video showing the Illinois Sub in all of its unscenicked glory. https://videopress.com/v/QLGY78ed?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true
A Free Building!
On Saturday November 22, I attended a model railroad swap meet in Danville, IN. The swap was sponsored by the Central Indiana Division of the National Model Railroad Association (CID/NMRA). The NMRA promotes the hobby nationally and the CID is the local group for western Indiana. I’ve never been an NMRA member so after almost... Continue Reading →
8 months later!
Yesterday, I fired up the railroad for the first time since March! After vacuuming the track, wiping off the rails with kerosene and charging up the cell phone throttles, I flipped the railroad’s power strip on and there were no issues. Seeing as the Digitrax command station is now 26 years old, I was pleased... Continue Reading →
Heritage Grain Coop
I’ve begun the construction on the railroad’s first building. The town of Sutton’s largest industry is the Heritage Grain Coop elevator. The elevator has spots for 7 cars. I’m constructing the elevator silos out of 1-1/4” PVC pipe cut in half lengthwise. The elevator will be placed against a wall. PVC pipe cut to length... Continue Reading →
Track realignment
The biggest yard on the railroad is the RW Yard at Fairfax. After running many JMRI generated trains, I realized I made a mistake on the RW Yard track layout. There are 4 tracks in the yard. From front to back, they were the departure track, track 1, track 2 & track 3. Track 3... Continue Reading →
Welcome to a new operator!
The railroad had its first guest operator this past week. I’ve known this operator over 30 years and this operator has visited but never operated on any of the 4 railroads I’ve built in 3 different houses spread across 2 states over the years. This operator did a good job as it was the first... Continue Reading →
Hello February!
This month will mark 2 years since the beginning of the construction of my railroad. On this day in 2023, I brought the first section of the railroad into the empty north bedroom. Test benchwork section I used this first 2 foot by 8 foot hunk of the railroad to make sure the height was... Continue Reading →
Throttle Follies
I have been running a lot of test trains lately. The train switch lists were generated by the JMRI Ops software. Running trains alone makes me the engineer and conductor. Thus I’m juggling a throttle and clipboard and pen and uncoupling pick. The throttle is the most used of the 4 items and is usually... Continue Reading →
Doorway Bridge
I’ve posted a YouTube video of the completed doorway bridge. The completed bridge https://youtu.be/s4ENrnNe5LA?si=IsAxci6iy2l7ac7V
Power Cabinet
I was asked by a YouTuber to show the equipment I use to run the railroad. I posted a short video of my power cabinet… https://youtu.be/7h6E2dTk3mM?si=O3iWwFFh0GfgURKY Like. Comment. Subscribe. Thanks for watching!
Rockville Western Railroad 